But
that money won't be spent on reducing New Zealand's domestic
emissions - it’ll go towards paying other countries to reduce their
emissions.

In
documents released under the Official Information Act, a briefing to
Judith Collins on her first day as Energy Minister says the cost to
the economy of buying international carbon units to offset our own
emissions will be $14.2 billion over 10 years.

Carbon
trading is the process of buying and selling permits and credits to
emit carbon dioxide.

In
the documents, officials say "this represents a significant
transfer of wealth overseas", and also warn "an over
reliance on overseas purchasing at the expense of domestic reductions
could also leave New Zealand exposed in the face of increasing global
carbon prices beyond 2030".

The
cost amounts to $1.4 billion annually.

The
Green Party says the bill will only get bigger if no action is taken
by the Government to reverse climate pollution, and continues to open
new coal mines and irrigation schemes.

Co-leader
James Shaw argues it’s cheaper for New Zealand to reduce domestic
emissions, and it’s risky to take a gamble on an international
carbon price which is subject to increase.

"The
Government has always said it's too costly for New Zealand to reduce
its own greenhouse gas emissions, but what these documents show is
they haven't been completely straight with the public because they
haven’t been talking about the cost of paying other countries to do
it for us."

The
Morgan Foundation calculated that in 2014, New Zealand spent about
$3.9 million on carbon credits to offset its domestic emissions.

It’s
not yet known where the money will come from to foot the $14.2
billion bill.

Businesses
reliant on carbon-intensive transport will be required to buy
international credits to account for their emissions, while the
government will wear the cost of buying credits for industries exempt
from the Emissions Trading Scheme such as agriculture.

New
Zealand’s pledge under the Paris Agreement is to reduce emissions
by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Our
domestic emissions are expected to increase overall by 2030Watch a movie about New Zealand's shameful record over responding to climate change